1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display apparatus, and more particularly, to a circuit for driving address electrodes of a plasma display panel system, which is capable of increasing efficiency of a circuit design and a data transmittal of the flat panel display apparatus adopting a red-green-blue strip-type plasma display panel (referred to as "PDP").
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, as television sets (referred to as "TV") have become more widely used, consumers are demanding slim display apparatuses which have wide screens and which are easily installable. In view of consumers' needs, the existing cathode ray tube (referred to as "CRT") has started to reveal limitations thereof. Thus, the existing display equipment such as the CRT has come to be replaced by a so-called flat panel display (referred to as "FPD") apparatus that has a wide display area and that is slim as well. Further, recently, research projects therein are in progress enthusiastically at home and abroad.
This kind of the FPD device is largely divided into an emissive device and a non-emissive device. The emissive device is usually called an active emitting device and is a device which emits a light by itself. Representative examples of the emissive device are a field emission display (referred to as "FED") device, a vacuum fluorescent display (referred to as "VFD") type device, an electro-luminescence (referred to as "EL") type device, a plasma display panel (referred to as "PDP") and the like. The non-missive device is called a passive light emitting device, and representative examples of the non-emissive device are a liquid crystal display (referred to as "LCD") device, an electro-chromic display (referred to as "ECD"), an electro-chromic image display (referred to as "EPID") and the like.
Currently, the LCD device occupies the main stream in products such as desk clocks, calculators, lap-tops and the like. However, when this device is adopted to television sets having the screen size of 21 inches and over, it also shows the limitations up to now due to problems in a manufacturing process of a panel and in obtaining an acceptable product. Further, it has the disadvantages of having a narrow visual field angle and of having a response rate which is subject to a temperature variation. Recently, the PDP is newly attracting public attention as the flat panel display of the next generation which is capable of solving the problems of the LCD device.
Because the PDP emits a light by itself in a principle which is similar to that of a fluorescent lamp, it has a uniform brightness and a high contrast although a screen area is as wide as the screen area of the CRT. In addition, the PDP has a visual field angle of 140 degrees and above, and is well-known as the best wide screen display device which has a screen size of 21 to 55 inches. The panel manufacturing process of the PDP is simplified as compared with that of the LCD device and thereby saves a manufacturing cost. However, because the manufacturing cost of the PDP is more than that of the CRT, manufacturers are carrying out searches to reduce the manufacturing cost.
The plasma display is largely classified into a direct current (referred to as "DC") type and an alternating current (referred to as "AC") type according to a structural difference of a discharge cell thereof and a form of a driving voltage based on the structural difference. The DC type is driven by a DC voltage, whereas the AC type is driven by a sinusoidal AC voltage or by a pulse voltage. The AC type includes such a structure that a dielectric layer covers an electrode to serve as a current regulation resistor, whereas the DC type includes such a structure that an electrode is exposed to a discharge room as it is and that a discharge current comes to flow during a supply of the discharge voltage. Because the AC type has the electrode which is covered with the dielectric, it is more durable than the DC type. The AC type has a further advantage in that a wall electric charge which is generated on a surface of the dielectric as a result of a polarization, causes the cell to have a memory function therein, and is more applicable in the field of display devices than the others.
A color PDP includes a structure of 3 terminals wherein a special electrode is installed in order to improve discharge characteristics thereof. Namely, the 3-terminal air structure comprises 3 electrodes per unit cell for display which are an address electrode for entering data, a maintenance electrode for sequentially scanning a line and for maintaining a cell discharge, and a bus electrode for helping a discharge maintenance.
A number of the address electrode for entering data is determined in accordance to a horizontal resolution. For example, in the case where a number of samples per line is 853 for each of the red, green and blue colors, a total number of the samples comes to 2559. Therefore, a required number of the address electrodes is also 2559. In the case where an arrangement of the address electrode has a strip form, red, green and blue electrodes are arranged repeatedly.
As described above, because a circuit arrangement of an electrode driving section is restricted considering a space utilization when thousands the address electrodes are arranged on one side, an upper and lower electrode driving system is adapted wherein the section for driving 1280 electrodes, which are ordered in an odd-numbered sequence, are arranged at an upper end portion of a panel whereas the section for driving 1279 electrodes, which are ordered in an even-numbered sequence, are arranged at a lower end portion thereof (refer to U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,838).
Meanwhile, in order to display a TV signal of a system of national television system committee (referred to as "NTSC") on the PDP, a data processing section converts an interlaced scanning system into a sequential scanning system, and also converts data into data of a subfield system for a PDP contrast processing. Further, the data processing section provides 1280 red-green-blue (referred to as "RGB") pixel data per line to the electrode driving section for driving the upper and lower address electrodes of the panel of the PDP in harmony with the arrangement of the address electrode.
Conventionally, a video data of the PDP is transferred by a data rearranging section for rearranging digital RGB sample data into subfield data for a contrast processing, by a frame memory section for converting one scanning system into the other, by a data interfacing section for outputting previously-latched 2559 pixel data to the upper and lower electrode driving sections in harmony with the arrangement of the upper and lower electrodes while latching 2559 pixel data corresponding to 1 line which is supplied from the memory section, and by upper and lower address electrode driving integrated circuits for outputting the ROB data provided from the data interfacing section to the address electrode.
At this time, 1280 units of the RGB data are arranged in a memory region for the upper and lower address electrodes of the data interfacing section as 12 columns .times.107 rows of a matrix, the arranged RGB data are inputted to the upper and lower address electrode driving sections by 80 bits over 16 times, respectively. Also, the RGB data of the memory region for the upper address electrode are arranged in the respective columns in red, blue and green sequence, and the RGB data of the memory region for the lower address electrode arranged in the respective columns in green, red and blue sequence.
The upper and lower driving sections have 20 units of address electrode driving ICs arranged in upper and lower portions of the display panel, and each of the address electrode driving ICs have four input pins for receiving 4 bits of RGB data over 16 times from the data interfacing section and 64 output pins for outputting 64 bits of the RGB data inputted over 16 times to the address electrode.
However, since the address electrode driving IC has the four input pins and the 64 output pins, some of the RGB data arranged in an identical row of the data interfacing section having the RGB arranged in the 12 columns .times.107 rows are not inputted to an identical address electrode driving IC.
Accordingly, the data interfacing section stores the RGB data until the RGB data corresponding to one line are perfectly inputted from the memory section, and the data interfacing section outputs the stored RGB data to the respective address electrode driving ICs when the RGB data corresponding to the one line are inputted. Consequently, a storage capacity of the data interfacing section has to be designed such a volume that the RGB data corresponding to the one line can be stored.